1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an ink cartridge and an image forming apparatus employing the ink cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus, such as an ink jet printer, etc., forms an image with ink and is sometimes provided with an ink supply bag to store the ink and a waste ink collection bag to collect ink waste. In such an image forming apparatus, it is known that the ink supply bag and the waste ink collection bag are installed in a common ink cartridge to effectively downsize the ink cartridge and the image forming apparatus as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2002-307705 (JP-2002-307705-A) and 2002-307720 (JP-2002-307720-A). With such a configuration, the ink cartridge of each of JP-2002-307705-A and JP-2002-307720-A also simplifies disassembly and replacement of the ink cartridge.
However, when these are to be recycled, the ink supply bag and the waste ink collection bag need to be taken apart and cleaned thereafter, which is time-consuming as a problem.